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Reviving interest in the subject was at once excited and displayed by the appointment, in 1864, of a Lunar Committee of the British Association. The indirect were of greater value than the direct fruits of its labours. An English school of selenography rose into importance. Popularity was gained for the subject by the diffusion of works conspicuous for ingenuity and research.
As no branch of selenography has been more neglected than the observation of these interesting but enigmatical features, one may hope that, in spite of the exacting conditions as to situation and instrumental requirements necessary for their successful scrutiny, the fairly equipped amateur in this less favoured country will not be deterred from attempting to clear up some of the doubts and difficulties which at present exist as to their actual nature.
PROGRESS OF SELENOGRAPHY. Till within recent years, the systematic study of the lunar surface may be said to have been confined, in this country at any rate, to a very limited number of observers, and, except in rare instances, those who possessed astronomical telescopes only directed them to the moon as a show object to excite the wonder of casual visitors.
The announcement of this apparent change led to a critical examination of the object by most of the leading observers, and to a controversy which, if it had no other result, tended to awaken an interest in selenography that has been maintained ever since.
The publication of Webb's "Celestial Objects" in 1859, the supposed physical change in the crater Linne, announced in 1866, and the appearance of an unrecorded black spot near Hyginus some ten years later, had the effect of awakening a more lively interest in selenography, and undoubtedly combined to bring about a change in this respect, which ultimately resulted in the number of amateurs devoting much of their time to this branch of observational astronomy being notably increased.
But Beer and Madler measured the heights of lunar mountains by their shadows, and found four of them over 20,000 feet above the surrounding plains. Langrenus was the first to do serious work on selenography, and named the lunar features after eminent men. Riccioli also made lunar charts. In 1692 Cassini made a chart of the full moon.
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